1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a panoramic image capture device and, more specifically, to a panoramic image capture device for producing a stereoscopic panoramic image.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Panoramic cameras are known in the art. Such cameras often use a single, rotatable camera. Although such devices are suitable for stationary images, such devices typically produce blurred or distorted images when used to capture non-stationary objects. It is also known in the art to utilize an image capture system having a plurality of image capture devices. In this manner, a plurality of images can be captured, substantially simultaneously, and stitched together using processes known in the art. Although such systems substantially eliminate the problem associated with capturing objects in motion, such systems do not provide means for producing a stereoscopic image.
It is also known in the art to use a “fish-eye” lens to capture a panoramic image. Such images, however, import a large amount of distortion into the resulting image, and capture images of relatively low quality. Accordingly, it would be desirable to produce a panoramic image of lower distortion and higher quality.
Typically, to capture a stereoscopic image, two imaging systems are positioned next to one another to capture a particular image. Unfortunately, this method cannot be extrapolated to producing a stereoscopic panoramic image, as one image capture device would necessarily fall into the field of view of the adjacent image capture device. It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a panoramic image capture system which could be utilized to produce a stereoscopic pair of panoramic images for a stereoscopic display of a particular image.